Dog Show Points

Today I mailed off my entry for two more dog shows in April. Jedi will turn 18 months old two days before the shows, so no more puppy classes for him. Now we have to go against the big boys. I'm so nervous! These are all-breed shows, different from the specialty shows that the German Shepherd Dog Club of North Florida is hosting over Easter weekend. Our ultimate goal is to win some points toward the title of Champion. To earn Champion a dog must earn a total of 15 points. Calculating points can be confusing. Want to learn?

First of all, the AKC separates the country into 15 different divisions. Each division has a different point schedule, so a dog may need to defeat more dogs in one division than in another. We're in Division 4 (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina). The schedule for German shepherds looks like this:


            1           2           3           4             5
GSD    2   2      5   5      7   8     10  12     14   18


The numbers on top are the point value of the show. The numbers below show how many dogs (males) or how many bitches (females) are required for those point values. You can see that 1-3 points are even. But when you get to 4 and 5 point shows, it changes. To earn 4 points, a dog only has to beat 9 other dogs; a bitch has to beat 11 other bitches to earn the same amount of points. The point schedule changes every year too. After May 15th, it'll look like this:


            1           2           3           4             5
GSD    2   2      5   5      8   8     10  12     14   19


The formula used to calculate the point values is based on the number of dogs shown the previous year. Not much of change this year, but some years it's downright drastic!

To make things more complicated, shows valued 3 or more points are called "majors." To make Champion, a dog's 15 points include two majors under separate judges. However, calculating Jedi's points is easy; Jedi has ZERO points.

I explained the basics of how a dog works in Dog Show 101. Go ahead and check it out. And if you happen to be near the St. John's County Fairgrounds on April 5, 6 or 18 (the specialty shows are in the same place), come by and cheer us on. Who knows we may even win some points! -- K